The Girl Genius contest is now complete.

Congratulation go to our two winners!

In first place, as determined by your votes, is David the Fireballing Mad Science Teacher, you clearly struck a nerve with the evil gleeam in your eye. Or was that just reflected fire?

In second place with a commanding following was Wren for his stirring composition highlighting his urge to experiment on anything that comes near him… I have to wonder if he experimented on himself first to make sure it was safe BEFORE modifying his cat Wendy, or if it was the other way around.

I prefer to think that he modded himself first. That’s just how I roll. :)

As the winners, both of these fine folks will have Girl Genius volume 1: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank winging their way to their respective doorsteps.

I’d like to thank all of the contestants for their fine work and urge to mad science, and for taking the time to get involved and have fun. I really liked all of your submissions.

Really, thank you all.

And to my readers who voted, a hearty thank you as well!

I’ve had five imaginative entries for the Girl Genius Mad Science contest.

Just as I’d hoped, the entries were fun, free spirited, inventive and cool. I couldn’t be happier. You’re gonna love ‘em.

Here’s the deal. I’m going to post the entries, along with a brief description from the creator. At the end of the post, once you’ve seen all five entries, there will be a poll. Sinply choose your favorite.

The top two poll fan favorites will be declared winners one and two, I will mail them their prizes, and everyone gets the recognition they deserve for their awesome ideas.

First contestant:
Robotic Wren and Wendy

This is my hopefully “good” entry, me (Wren) and my cyber-kitty Wendy. My wife did all the photo work, while me and the kitty got to play dress up!

Second contestant:
David the Fireballing Mad Science Teacher

My alter ego is that of a science teacher :) Somehow I’ve convinced a reputable organization to allow me the responsibility of crafting the minds of their young ones. I haven’t put too much effort into learning how to photoshop my pics, so I’d like to send in a real one. A student got a great shot of me in the prep room at school one day.

This shot is my facebook profile pic and most of my WoW friends have made some mage jokes. The coolest thing about it is the look on people’s face when they see you do this for the first time. The second coolest thing though is launching huge fireballs off of your hands.

I haven’t done any digital alteration of this picture save for maybe adjusting contrast or lighting.

I like to think that I have a bit of an alter ego when I’m at work in front of young minds, and I think some of them may see me as a bit of a mad scientist. If they think it’s cool and keep exploring science, then I’ve done my job. Hope you like the picture, Dave.

Third contestant:
Commander Braithwick and the Ghost of Hades by Ron Ward

Due to the length of Ron’s text story entry, I’ve placed it at the very end of this post (after the poll), and you can read it, in full, by clicking on the “more” tab.

Fourth contestant:
Mad Science Mech Mouse! by Tesh

This is an idea I’ve been sitting on for a while, and just finally put into digital paint tonight. There’s no background; I tried but couldn’t find anything I liked that would fit into the schedule I have. ;)

So, here’s hoping you like it! There’s definitely some backstory here, but in a nutshell, this is a small autonomous ‘bot that has managed to scavenge some repair parts… of bone. It’s best not to ask quite what critters died to provide this little ‘bot with its gear, or how they died. It’s enough to know this is a scavenger ‘bot in the deadlands of the Northwatch. Well, that, or nightmare fuel like the stuff in the 9 movie. Later, Tesh

Fifth contestant:
The Fruit-Fed DeLorean by Symbiode

I made this the other day in Garry’s Mod, then I remembered you had a contest (or your blog reminded me ;) ). It seemed Mad Science-ey enough, hope you like it!

Okay, that’s all five contestants’ entries. I think you’ll agree, they all show creative, inventive mad science flair. :) Now it’s time for you to do your part… vote for your favorite! The poll will be up until Tuesday night January 25th (midnight Central US time)

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Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the last day to get those Girl Genius inspired mad science entries in to me!

Confused? Check out the contest announcement here for more details.

So far I’ve had three entries… three really good entries, mind you, but you’ve certainly still got a good chance to show off your ingenuity or creativity.

Good luck!

To celebrate the release of Agatha H and the Airship City by Kaja and Phil Foglio, I’m going to have a little contest.

You can’t have a contest without some kind of prize, so here’s what the lucky winner will receive;

Girl Genius Volume 1: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank, in softcover!

The first volume of the awesome Girl Genius webcomic; the perfect synthesis of Johannes Gutenberg’s mad science creation and the Foglios’ mad science imaginings, brought directly into your home!

Why, the very act should feel slightly edgy!

But enough about the prize, how do you, the reader, go about obtaining this classic of modern iMADgination?

It’s quite simple… deceptively so.

You have to bring your own mad genius into play!

Using your imagination, and whatever artistic talents you may have, bring your favorite character creation and the concept of mad science together… and then send your juxtaposition of imagination to me here at the Big Bear Butt. (email to tigerlordgm AT yahoo DOT com)

It’s not about World of Warcraft, although you can use your favorite character from WoW if you’d like. It’s not about screenshots, although you can choose to submit one if that’s what the mad little neurons drove you to do when they got all excited up in your cranial housing.

What it takes is a character, an avatar, an alter ego of yours from a game or story of some kind, and your placing that character into a context highlighting and celebrating the whimsical genius and enthusiastic inventiveness that is mad science.

You can send in screenshots, short stories, movies (or links to movies posted by you on YouTube), songs, pictures of sculpture or knitted scenes, or anything your mind can imagine and that you would love to show off. The main thing is, it has to have been created by YOU.

Heck, create a cake sculpture and send in a picture, whatever you’d like. It’s not meant to be work, it’s meant to be fun! How your creativity is expressed is up to you!

I will gladly accept screenshots or pastiches of your character in-game amidst the panoply of rendered mad science… bless those gnomes and goblins for their hard work.

I will accept all submissions , beginning today and lasting throughout the week, ending on Friday, January 21st.

The weekend of January 22nd – 23rd, Cassie and I will review all submissions, and pick our favorites to go up on the blog for YOUR votes!

That’s right, the final winner will be determined by you! Well, the collective ‘you’ of readers that choose to vote.

So put your best set of thinking goggles on, and get hopping! Time is running out!

Again, email your submission (or a link to your submission) to tigerlordgm AT yahoo DOT com!

The BBB would like to inform all potential contestants that this contest is being held completely under the direction and control of the BBB. Prizes are submitted by the BBB, shipped by the BBB, and any issues are wholly the fault OF the BBB. Phil and Kaja Foglio are completely unaware of this contest, and should not be bothered with any questions or concerns ABOUT this contest. Failure to understand this may result in being blasted by a death ray. Thank you.

The decisions were difficult to make. I want to be very clear about this. We received a lot of great entries, and every single one of them was very well written, and in almost all cases it was easy to tell that a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, and a lot of your personal thoughts and imagination were caught up into your stories.

In choosing the winners of the contest, we tried to pick the stories that we loved the most that embraced and ran with the concept of bringing your own character into a personal moment with Arthas, as we defined in the original post.

There were a great many stories that were extremely well written and imaginative, that we felt were great… but just did not fulfill that one rule, that it be about you interacting directly with Arthas.

In the end, however, we could not simply disregard every entry because they chose to write about or around arthas rather than face to face. It was also about imagination, after all.

So we chose four winners from the group that wrote a story of their character directly interacting with Arthas, and one winner that wrote an extremely imaginative story weaving their in game activities with the recent patch shenanigans, into a story where the presence of Arthas was there, but there had been no true interaction between them.

So here we go, the list of winners who will be receiving a book. Over the course of the weekend, I will be sharing those stories with you, one story per post. I think their work deserves it.

A huge thank you to everyone that entered. I only wish I could give every one of you a book, because you far surpassed my wildest dreams with your creativity, your ingenuity, and your passion.

In no particular order the winners are -

Malphailuron of Eredar (also known as Warriorpanda) with a story about the desire of preventing the evil that would be the Lich King… tempered with a love and trust in the faithfulness of the Light.

Hannelore with a story that, while short, invested an incredible amount of emotional power, of passion and dread into her brief encounter with the Lich King that made me want to see a lot more of her adventures.

Cowsareus of the Twilight Hammer EU, who wrote a stirring story of a Druid seeking to work in the way of nature, preparing for a future spring right at the start of the most brutal winter.

Kraggette of Anvilmar with a story of intrigue and betrayal on the very eve of war against the Banshee Queen.

And, last but not least, Ærynn Lómëhtar with the entry that, as I said, may not have quite fulfilled the concept of a face to face encounter with Arthas… but was our choice to represent all those that went nuts with great stories that just didn’t follow the rules.

Congratulations to all of you, and to everyone that wrote such stirring stories.

All of the entries will eventually be posted in an archived format later, so that all of them can be enjoyed as they should. Just because these five were the winners in no way means the other stories were bad. Far from it. Some of them were just incredibly wonderful, including the POEtic efforts of Krizzlybear, and the explosive fun of Honorshammer. Those stories certainly should NOT just vanish into the darkness.

But in the meantime, the winning five will be here on the blog this weekend!

Grats!